The historical and evolutions of E-commerce

Electronic commerce (EC) is the process of buying and selling goods, services and information via computer networks.

In the early 1970s, EC applications started developed with electronic funds transfer (EFT), which refers to the computer-based systems used to perform financial transactions electronically. However, the use of these applications was limited to financial institutes, large corporations, and some daring businesses.

To improve the limitation of EFT, Electronic data interchange (EDI) was then developed in the late 1970s. EDI enlarged the pool of participating company from manufacturers, retailers, services, and others. Such systems were called Inter organizational System (IOS) which allows the flow of information to be automated between organizations to reach a desired supply-chain management system and also enables the development of competitive organizations. Apart from that, electronic commerce additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing from the 1990s onwards.

The term ‘electronic commerce’ was coined in the early 1990s when Internet became commercialized and users started to use the World Wide Web. Possibly EC is introduced from the Telephone Exchange Office. The earliest example of many-to-many EC in physical goods was a marketplace which used computers launched in 1982 named Boston Computer Exchange. The first online information marketplace, including online consulting, was likely the American Information Exchange, another pre-Internet online system introduced in 1991.

Here’s a video on the Origins of E-commerce:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wan896ZO4aY&eurl=http://ecommerze.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/the-history-and-evoltion-of-e-commerce/&feature=player_embedded

For evolutions of E-commerce, many innovative applications, ranging from direct online sales to e-learning experiences had been developed since 1995. Almost every organization in the world has a Web site.

In 1999, the emphasis of e-commerce shifted from B2C to B2B.

In 2001, from B2B to B2E, e-government, e-learning, and m-commerce.

In 2005, social networks started to rise and so did l-commerce and wireless applications.

E-commerce will undoubtedly continue to shift and change in the future. As the table below is evolution of E-commerce.

YEAR/EVENT
1984
EDI, or electronic data interchange, was standardized through ASC X12. This guaranteed that companies would be able to complete transactions with one another reliably.

1992
Compuserve offers online retail products to its customers. This gives people the first chance to buy things off their computer.

1994
Netscape arrived. Providing users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer.

1995
Two of the biggest names in e-commerce are launched: Amazon.com and eBay.com.

1998
DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line, provides fast, always-on Internet service to subscribers across California. This prompts people to spend more time, and money, online.

1999
Retail spending over the Internet reaches $20 billion, according to Business.com.

2000
The U.S government extended the moratorium on Internet taxes until at least 2005.

Source: http://newmedia.medill.northwestern.edu/courses/nmpspring01/brown/Revstream/history.htm